Other Science News

“Humans, it seems, have far fewer genes than had been expected — in fact, only a third more than the lowly roundworm. How can this be? And what does it mean?

“The paucity of my listening powers dawned on me as a byproduct of starting to meditate.

“One chilly November morning in 1964, the Medical Expedition to Easter Island set out from Halifax on a Canadian Navy vessel. On board were microbiologists, virologists, parasitologists, medical doctors and 200 sailors.

   

 

Among the many lessons of COVID has been how poorly scientists and the general public understand our biology.

Are you familiar with Dunbar’s number? It is the estimate of the number of reasonably meaningful relationships we might have with other individuals at one time.

P-values are the statistical coin of the realm in determining the significance, at least statistically, of a randomized controlled study – our gold standard. But might we apply a different metric to determine whether an impact is found?

The media is constantly reporting on conflicts of interest in medical research. As a result, the only time we hear from academicians involved in this work is when they are “back on the heels,” defending their behavior.

“The Good Science Project’s funding, Buck said, comes almost entirely from Patrick Collison, a tech billionaire best known for founding Stripe, a payment-processing company.